Transitioning to Triumph: Navigating Private Practice & Understanding Autism in Adolescent Girls w/ Katie Salmons

Have you ever wondered what it's like to transition from working in a residential setting to starting your own private practice? Dive into an enlightening conversation with our beloved guest, Katie Salmons, a seasoned social worker who's made this leap with grace and success. She shares her experiences with us, providing a fresh perspective on the challenges teens and families face today, and how her unique, creative therapeutic approach has allowed many to feel the sweet taste of success for the first time.

Did you know that autism diagnosis in teenage girls has been on the rise? Katie unravels her journey towards understanding autism and neurodivergence, with a special focus on adolescent girls. She enlightens us on how these young girls often mask their behaviors just to fit in, and the crying need for more research on this topic. Katie’s dedication to community-based work is heartwarming and her enthusiasm for connecting with the local community in her private practice is truly inspiring. So, gear up for an insightful episode filled with meaningful discussions and in-depth knowledge. Tune in and let Katie Sammons enrich your understanding!

ksempowers@gmail.com
(828) 357-7957

This program is brought to you by:
Kindred Art Therapy
Visit https://www.arttherapync.com/ to schedule a free consultation.
- and -
Alynee Davis, PLLC
Visit https://alynnedavis.com/ to connect.
Alynne is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and Coach.

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Transcript

Aubrey : 1:01

Welcome to Kindred Conversations, the show where we shine a light on local mental health professionals, who are the unsung heroes of our community. Join us as we delve into their journeys, strategies and the art of feeling minds. Together, we'll break down stigmas and celebrate resilience. Today, I'm so excited that we have Katie Sammons, who is a seasoned professional in the field of social work, holding degrees from esteemed University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Katie's expertise lies in providing comprehensive support to adolescents and families facing a wide array of challenges.

Aubrey : 1:38

Over the course of her career, katie has demonstrated a profound commitment to addressing issues such as suicidal ideation, self-harm, aggression, anxiety, depression, trauma and addiction within residential settings. Transitioning into private practice, she continues to offer her invaluable guidance to adolescents and young adults. In addition to her clinical work, katie also plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of social work and substance use professionals by providing supervision and mentorship. Katie, it's a privilege to have you here. Your dedication to this field is truly commendable, and I also want to mention that I'm so excited because Katie is a very dear friend of mine and I'm so happy to have her today.

Katie: 2:27

Well, thank you. I don't know that I have ever heard such a great introduction, so thank you very much.

Aubrey : 2:33

Well, you deserve it. And just for everybody listening, Katie and I shared an office across from one another for like three years. And so you know, it's really exciting for me. I haven't talked to you in months and months, and months, and now you're starting your private practice Next. Well, in December, right? Well, you've already been starting it.

Katie: 2:55

Yeah, so I've had a private practice like the world's smallest private practice for about a year now, and then, yeah, I will be fully private practice, so I will have a full caseload, essentially starting in December. My last day at my agency job is December 1st, so I'll really dive into that at the end of the year and really like pick up in 2024. But surprisingly I mean I am surprised, maybe I shouldn't be but I already do have quite a few clients already that I'm very excited to work with and continue working with.

Aubrey : 3:30

Katie, I think it's so exciting to bring your services out into the world. There's so many people that you can help and affect change. You're very much like a free thinker and you've been able to put your own authenticity and your own spin on certain mental health treatments and be able to blend them together in ways that have really made a big difference in the lives of your families that you've worked with, the children that you've worked with and now moving into private practice, like the young adults that you're working with as well. I mean, I've seen that change happen and I've seen you flourish as a counselor over the last three, four years that we've known each other. You know, can you think back to a time in your life where maybe you didn't realize that you'd be in the position that you're in now?

Katie: 4:25

Oh, I mean absolutely. I think it's interesting because I thought I was going to work in residential treatment my whole career. I thought that's what I was essentially meant to do. I love seeing all of the puzzle pieces of an entire person be seen in a residential setting and then work from that, but also just the complexity of residential. I just loved it and really thrived.

Katie: 4:52

But I will say in general, I don't know, I never knew I was going to be a therapist per se. You know, when I was in my undergrad or trying to figure my life out, I just knew I wanted to help people and so it's just really interesting kind of how my life has panned out, because it really started after graduate school. I was in AmeriCorps just working with seventh graders in Denver, colorado, and this child I guess she was 12 or 13 at the time just had a panic attack in front of the entire seventh grade and for some reason I knew what to do with zero training and that just really has blossomed into this career that I've had now, which is over 10 years in residential settings, five of those being a mentor and a crisis manager and now five of them well, five plus really being a therapist. So yeah, it's really cool, I'm really excited.

Aubrey : 5:54

Yeah, I mean, some of the skills that I've seen you bring are not just with the kids that you're working with, because those strategies that you use are very creative and engaging and developmentally appropriate, but then you're also creating experiences for the families. You're also making sure that those staff members who are working with that child and those families that you're also making sure that they know what to do and how to engage appropriately. You're advocating at a larger scale to be able to help make sure that everything is wrapping around the growth of that family.

Katie: 6:35

Yeah, and maybe to add to that, I think my style is so eclectic because it's truly had to be. Most of the clients and families that I've worked with have been through other types of therapy or have tried various things, whether it's through the school system or through out of placement or out of home placements, and a lot of that hasn't worked. So my ability to use different aspects from different therapy models or to be creative and engaging and experiential has really allowed for some of these families and children to feel success for the first time and it's been invaluable to them because they're finally seeing something that works and that's really what they've sometimes been searching for for years, sometimes only moments. Yeah, they want a solution and you know I'm not fixing people, but I'm definitely trying to help them find their own ability to navigate the world.

Aubrey : 7:36

So, now that you're going from that setting into the private practice world, what do you foresee as being either the same or different in terms of challenges that teens and families are facing today?

Katie: 7:50

Interestingly, I do think there's going to be quite a bit of similarities. So, you know, families and students who find themselves in residential settings are usually families and students that are really, really struggling and don't really have another place to turn and then just want this intense help. I'm finding that in the residential world we're getting less clients. We're getting less people that can afford sending their child away and maintain being in a long term program. We're also seeing which I think this is great we're seeing a lot of families be really passionate about wanting to keep their family together and navigate what they're experiencing as a family unit. So, interestingly, I think some of my work is similar in that the behaviors might be similar, the fear may be similar, the complexity will be similar, but the difference is, is my work is going to be a lot more preventative or also trying to help families and kids be safe within their own environment before going somewhere else?

Katie: 9:05

A lot of my clients that I have gathered over the last year in private practice have been kids who have prior or very recent hospitalizations, whether that's significant self-harm or suicidal ideation or aggressive bouts in the home. I do have quite a bit of newly diagnosed autism, lgbtqia+, and really, I find that they are just looking for support. They're looking for somebody to understand them at a deeper level and somebody that can provide them with some strategies and work with them, and I think that's really what I'm seeing. And they want to not be sent away, they want to not lose their education and they're motivated to better themselves, which is really great.

Aubrey : 9:56

Yeah, that's super exciting. Okay, so what are you most looking forward to in the private practice world?

Katie: 10:04

Cool Really. I think it's getting back to communities. I worked for a really long time in a community-based organization. It was a psychiatric residential treatment facility, so still very high-level clients. But they were all North Carolinians, some of them were local Ashvillians and I just signed a lease, literally 48 hours ago, in the South Ashville area, arden area. That's where I'm living, that's where I have kind of dug some roots. I am really excited to work with the lovely people in our community. I actually do quite a bit of presentations and education for various types of folks, both the area health education centers as well as other churches and programs. I just did a presentation for some families at a local church and it was just so nice to connect with people that are in my community that I could run into in the grocery store instead of people from all over the country. Even though I still like working with all different kinds of people, going back to my roots and where I live is really special.

Aubrey : 11:26

That's Katie. I can so see you doing that. Like you know, both being like I already know about your space, so I'm excited about that for you. I mean, I'm just like really thrilled for you that you're getting to like step into this kind of like do it yourself kind of space. What is that like Like you're going from, you know, working in an agency, like working for somebody else, like their rules, their structures, like what's it like to sort of create things yourself?

Katie: 11:57

Well, it's honestly, it's thrilling.

Katie: 11:59

I think I am so passionate about the work that I do.

Katie: 12:03

I believe in what I do, I believe in helping people and, to put it simply, I really hope to help people love themselves, and I think at times when you do work under folks, it can be hard to fully be yourself and to fully do everything that you want, and I think that was necessary for a long time being a baby therapist and now that I'm kind of like growing into my own, there are a lot of things I want to be able to do for my client base and my population, and it is terrifying, like let's just put that out there Like I mean, financial stability is absolutely my fear here, but also like I want to have clients. I want people to believe that I can help them, and that's scary too. Clients aren't just given to me, they have to like me, and so that will be scary. But yeah, it is also very, very exciting because I get to truly be me in the way that I want to do it and the way that I feel like is right for my population.

Aubrey : 13:11

Katie. I can't imagine anybody else Like if you talk to Katie like Katie you're so good at like, reflecting back both yourself and your own unique individuality. But you also inspire authenticity in me when I'm sitting with you. I don't know if that applies to everyone, but it feels like that to me. You know because I've seen you work so well with other kids and stuff.

Katie: 13:36

Yeah, I'll throw out. You know this, this has not come easy Like in terms of me being confident in who I am and and you know, knowing my own resolve. I think it's come with doing my own work and navigating the own stressors, or my own stressors and my own life, and getting to a place where I like myself. So that's kind of another aspect to it is like I am very genuine and I want the people around me to be very genuine and feel like they can be and create that same safe space and then with that, growth really happens. You know, I think we can't necessarily grow as much as we want to if we can't be honest with ourselves and the people around us. And maybe that's something to point out. What you see is what you get with me, like I am who I am in session versus out of session. Obviously, I don't tell my clients my whole life, but I definitely am me all the time and I think many people really appreciate that. And again, I appreciate that because I like authenticity. Yeah.

Aubrey : 14:46

So, katie, I want to kind of shift the topic a little bit into autism. So this was, this is a topic of interest for us, you know, working where we were at, because a lot of the kids that we were seeing come through. I mean, like we were in this space, this environment, over the course of like five years, right, and during that period of time we saw more and more diagnosed cases of autism, especially in the girls that we were treating, and you know it's been a really interesting landscape. Coming into private practice, where there's a lot of therapists myself included, I will say this that just have not like gathered enough information and I feel like there's just so much information to gather. I'm curious about your own like journey of exploring this more and like what some of your thoughts and impressions have been over the last like five years or so.

Katie: 15:49

Yeah, well, I will say wow. I mean the last five years, I feel like all clinicians, especially working with adolescent girls or assigned female at birth students. We are learning so much about autism and obviously I did. A long, long time ago. I actually started my autism journey working with the Autism Society of North Carolina and I will say I was very naive at that time. I learned a lot through that experience that I think was wonderful. At the same time, I didn't know a lot. So the last five years I have learned an extreme amount of information and you're exactly right, we are seeing a lot of 13, 14, 15 year olds get newly diagnosed with autism, either prior to working with us in a residential setting, or we are picking up some of those pieces and asking for an evaluation to happen to make that autism diagnosis. And to put it simple, because I think, goodness, we could talk about this for hours and hours I think we are just understanding the differences of the brain a lot more than what we have before, and I know you're speaking specifically to autism here, but I'll throw out just the whole umbrella of neurodivergence. I think is becoming more and more understood.

Katie: 17:14

Yes, assigned female at birth students do, or folks do really want to be social and they want to make friends, but they're doing that in a different way. That's being seen and that we're understanding it deeper and kind of to throw out. What typically happens is students assigned female at birth, students who they're able to mask and mirror for 12, 13 years and then their interests don't continue as they age, or they do continue, mixing this up a little bit. Essentially, the interest they start to fall off, like the students with autism, they might have the same interest as they get into 13 and 14, but those teenagers that are their friends move on from that and then they lose those friends and now we have a bunch of kids who lost their friends when they thought they had some really solid relationships. I'll throw out we're also seeing in the middle school time frame like, yes, not making as many friends, but also starting to struggle in school more so than they had before.

Katie: 18:29

I actually work with quite a few clients, teenagers, one of which who came to me with pretty heavy trauma, but one of the things that I was really noticing was the special interests, the struggling in school, hard to maintain friends, and I was like, wow, I really think we need to help this kiddo get an evaluation for autism and come to find out the child does have autism and that's why some of these things are happening. It's not just the trauma diagnosis. So, gosh, in terms of what have I known and learned in the last five years? I mean that I don't know enough and that I always need to continue to learn. I do attend autism conferences. I read autism books. I'm reading a workbook right now for one of my students who really does not believe that they are autistic and wants that diagnosis to go away. And, yeah, I need to constantly learn, go to CEUs and continue to grow as a therapist and neurodivergence as a whole.

Aubrey : 19:42

Yeah, for sure I'll say for myself. I know it was like not even a few years ago. I had a client, a girl, who we thought was maybe anxiety, maybe some OCD, but we couldn't quite pin down because she did have that social reciprocity.

Aubrey : 20:03

So, it's very difficult to look at that kid and see, oh yeah, there's autism there, and then, after that diagnosis, seeing more amplified signals of the autism. It was like and what we realized was that through the unmasking process she was able to regulate herself better, able to live her day to day. But it just didn't look like your neurotypical kids, like she was wearing different types of glasses, she was wearing headphones, like she was doing things but really utilizing all of her skills.

Katie: 20:42

Yeah, yeah, something that you really just brought up, for me too, is like these diagnostic red flags when you see them in children. I mean you and I both have seen children diagnosed with bipolar, diagnosed with personality features, diagnosed with various diagnosis that 14, 15 year olds you don't usually see. And then you start diving deeper in what those actual symptoms are and it's like, oh no, we just have a neurodivergent brain here.

Aubrey : 21:16

Yeah, so, katie, next episode. I wanna talk a little bit more about this topic. I think it's such an important one for our communities right now. I think that there's a lot of questions, lots of buzz online about this, so let's take a break and when we come back we'll talk more about this. Awesome yeah. So for those of you who are just listening in today and they wanna hear more from you, katie, why don't you tell listeners just your contact information is like an email address, phone number. That way, if they're looking for therapy in North Carolina or where else, are you licensed?

Katie: 21:52

So I'm currently licensed in North Carolina, south Carolina and Connecticut. Virginia is coming soon. You are free to call me at 828-357-7957 or email me at ksempowers at gmailcom. Also, feel free to Google Katie Salmons and Psychology. Today you can find me there too, while my website and brand is being updated.

Aubrey : 22:18

Well, thanks, Katie, and those of you who are listening. That information is gonna be in the show notes. If you like this show, go on to bizradious and be sure to like and subscribe.